Please help my tomato!

Littleduck26(7)July 31, 2014

Hi! So I had to go up to Oregon for a family funeral and was not able to water tomatoes for a week or so, I gave them a good watering before hand but of course the weather shifted and it got a bit to hot for the soil to stay damp to moist.

When I came back the soil was almost completely dry and while the tomatoes are still alive there were several dead/dying leaves and stalks I had to pinch off. The tomato in the image is my patio container tomato and seems to be suffering the most, what can I do for it?

I gave them all (there's 4 in the container) a deep watering and got my hands in the soil to make sure that the water got all the soil and didn't leave dry packed spots. In the container there is also a mixture of goat & rabbit poo I got from a farmer so it should be good on fertilizer. The tomatoes I am growing are roma, brandywine, (also really struggling, not yellowing just fairly bare stalks) celebrity, & the patio container.

Thanks in advance! I can include pictures of the other tomatos so you can see how they are doing too once I figure it out :-)

Several possibilities come to mind. Needless to say the week or so without water and attention doesn't do any plant any good but many in ground plants will bounce back from that if all other conditions are good. Bouncing back from it when in a container is a double challenge.

This catches my attention: there is also a mixture of goat & rabbit poo I got from a farmer so it should be good on fertilizer.

That isn't necessarily true. Plants in containers can only benefit from those sources of nutrients if there is an active soil food web of bacteria in the container to convert them to usable nutrients. That seldom exists in a container. And even if it does those nutrients leach out of the container with watering and have to be regularly replaced. The plant needs feeding.

Plus you don't tell us the size of the container or what it is growing in and those are important factors too.

Thank you for the response digdirt. I am growing it with Miracle Gro Garden Soil until I come across something better in a container that is roughly a 1.5 feet long, 11 inches wide and about 6-7 inches deep (estimating). This is my first go with gardening so its a big learning experience.